Weather and Traffic

Study: Red states could lose big in Trump’s repeal of Obamacare

New President Donald Trump has made repealing the Affordable Care Act a top priority.

But a study out of Harvard finds that such a repeal could hurt some of his most ardent supporters in red states. The study focuses on Southern red states who have expanded Medicaid as part of Obamacare. Rolling this portion of the ACA back could have dire consequences for states like Arkansas, Kentucky and Louisiana.

Researchers Benjamin Sommers and Arnold M. Epstein have been doing telephone surveys for four years of low-income adults in Southern states to gauge the effectiveness of Obamacare.

“Our survey provides insight into the current views of many adults living in red states, and the verdict is clear: in states that have embraced coverage expansion despite their political leanings, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion has made a positive difference that is recognizable to the people whose lives have been most directly affected by it,” their article stated.

Though 19 states declined to expand Medicaid under the ACA, 13 states won by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election have opted for expansion since 2014. West Virginia and Kentucky have experienced among the largest proportional increases in Medicaid enrollment in the country.

The researchers said that the question is not whether many Americans — even those in thoroughly red states — have benefited from the ACA, but whether that will be enough to save it.